ARTICLES ABOUT NEW YORKER BY DATE - PAGE 4

OXON HILL, Maryland (Reuters) - Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old boy from Bayside Hills, New York, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday by correctly spelling "knaidel," a kind of dumpling. Mahankali, a student at Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School, had finished third in the contest twice before, each time stumbling on German words. This year, the packed auditorium erupted in a standing ovation when he nailed "knaidel," which comes from German-derived Yiddish. "I thought, 'The German curse had turned into a German blessing,'" he said of his victory.

When New Yorker cartoonist Pat Byrnes and his wife, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, had their first child, there was no discussion about who would stay home. "It was too obvious," Byrnes says. "What's to discuss? It was a no-brainer. " His hours were flexible. Hers, not so much. He worked from home. Her, not so much. So when Madigan's maternity leave was up, Byrnes became the at-home caregiver for their now 8-year-old daughter and, eventually, her now 5-year-old sister.

By Hilary Russ and Edward Krudy NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) - Joseph Szczesny's modest Staten Island home was inundated when Superstorm Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast in October. Now six months later, the 63-year-old bridge repairman and his fiance are all but alone in their Oakwood Beach neighborhood on the borough's flood-prone Atlantic seafront. And they have had enough. "If you stay, you're rolling the dice," Szczesny said, over coffee and a cigarette at his tidy kitchen's table in late March.

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - New York City's upcoming public bike share program, Citibike, has already irked parking space seekers, food cart vendors and locals who resent seeing a Citibank sponsor logo on nearly every block. Now, heavier New Yorkers can be added to the list. According to the program's user contract, riders "must not exceed the maximum weight limit" of 260 pounds (120 kg) if they wish to sign up for the short-term bike rentals that will soon be available on city streets.

Americans who wear a hijab, covering the hair and neck, are sometimes viewed as foreigners on their home turf. New Yorker Sarah Musa, a technical designer for an American fashion and lifestyle company, entered the American Hijab Design Contest to help change that. In the competition's Chicago finale last weekend, Musa won the grand prize for her quilted shirtdress in a camel color, worn with a turtleneck, knitted hat, slim pants and boots. Yes, a knitted hat with a turtleneck can constitute a hijab.

* Bold, blunt and abrasive, he was city's biggest booster * Credited with New York's fiscal recovery in late 1970s * New Yorker to the core, Koch remained a political force (Adds details throughout) By Edith Honan and Chris Michaud NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Ed Koch, the voluble three-term mayor who helped bring New York back from the brink of fiscal ruin in the 1970s and came to embody the city with his wry, outspoken style, died on Friday at the age of 88. As mayor from 1978 to 1989, the forceful, quick-witted Koch, with his trademark phrase "How'm I Doin?